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18 foreign cricketers finalised for second IPL auction

NEW DELHI, March 9: Pakistan's Mohammed Yousuf and South Africa's Ashwell Prince, who were dumped by franchise owners at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction last month, along with Misbah-ul-Haq will be among the 18 players to be auctioned on Tuesday.

The list includes seven New Zealanders, four Australians, three Pakistanis, two from Bangladesh, and one each from Sri Lanka and South Africa.

The list includes the cricketers who are already contracted by IPL, an extension of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and would be playing in the maiden edition of the lucrative Twenty20 tournament starting April 18.

"There are 13 other foreign players who have shown keen interest to play in the first season," a top BCCI official said on condition of anonymity.

As per the IPL rules, the high profile team owners are free to buy more foreign players from outside the list of 18. But the teams will have to inform the IPL about the players they are targeting and the organisers will then negotiate their base price and try to secure the no-objection certificates (NOCs) from their home boards.

Pakistani batting's mainstay Yousuf and Prince were up for sale in the first auction, but there were no takers for the two players. They were once again ignored even when they were presented at the end of the eight-round auction, where 75 players went down the hammer. The duo would now be hoping to be picked on Tuesday.

Misbah, on the other hand, was not in the fray in the first auction.

The team owners, who were asked to spend between $3.3 million and $5 million at the first auction in Mumbai Feb 20, have varying amounts left in their kitty, which necessitated a second auction.

The amounts left are: $374,000 with Bangalore, $23,750 with Chennai, $71,250 with Delhi, $262,500 with Hyderabad, $1,700,000 with Jaipur, $107,500 with Kolkata, $292,250 with Mohali and $53,750 with Mumbai.

"However, if a team overspends $5 million on players who were initially not available but become available later, the excess expenditure will be ignored. Also, player fees for Indian players who were not in the auction do not count against the $5m purse," said the official.

"There will be no more auctions this season," the official added.

Each team can have a minimum of 16 players, including a maximum of eight currently available foreigners but not more than four in the playing XI. Those foreign players who are not available will not count towards the total.

The minimum of four under-22 players to be selected for the squad, will be taken from catchments areas and include U-19, Ranji Trophy and national players. They should be under 22 years of age as on April 1 of the applicable season.

The minimum fee for Ranji Trophy and non-auction players has been fixed at $50,000 per season while under-22 players will receive $20,000 for the same period.

All players must submit the NOCs at least 30 days before the start of every season, with the exception for the Australian players.

Cricket Australia (CA) has said that it would give NOCs to its players, if the franchise keen to contract a player has already met two conditions: (a) it has already signed two CA's centrally contracted players, or (b) it has already signed two players registered to the same Australian state association. This clause was added at the last minute before the first auction and will again apply.

But players who have retired from international and Australian domestic cricket and are not contracted with either CA or their state association - like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath -- do not have to meet this condition.

All team owners have to finalise their squads by 30 days before the start of the 2008 season, which is March 19.

Players for second auction:

1 Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan/batsman/season availability 80 percent)
2 Ashwell Prince (South Africa/batsman/season availability 100 percent)
3 Kyle Mills (New Zealand/bowler/season availability 40 percent)
4 Mohammad Hafeez (Pakistan/all-rounder/season availability 80 percent)
5 Ross Taylor (New Zealand/batsman/season availability40 percent)
6 Peter Fulton (New Zealand/batsman/season availability40 percent)
7 Jamie How (New Zealand/batsman/season availability40 percent)
8 Jeetan Patel (New Zealand/bowler/season availability40 percent)
9 Chris Martin (New Zealand/bowler/season availability40 percent)
10 James Franklin (New Zealand/bowler/season availability40 percent)
11 Brad Hodge (Australia/batsman/season availability100 percent)
12 Shane Watson (Australia/all-rounder/season availability100 percent)
13 James Hopes (Australia/all-rounder/season availability80 percent)
14 Luke Pomersbach (Australia/batsman/season availability100 percent)
15 Prasanna Jayawardene (Sri Lanka/wicket-keeper-batsman/season availability100 percent)
16 Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh/all-rounder/season availability100 percent)
17 Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh/batsman/season availability100 percent)
18 Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan/batsman/season availability80 percent)

Players who have expressed interested:

1 Goolam Bodi (South Africa)
2 Shaun Marsh (Australia)
3 Brad Hogg (Australia)
4 Shaun Tait (Australia)
5 Adam Voges (Australia)
6 Mick Lewis (Australia)
7 Darren Lehman (Australia)
8 Allen Wise (Australia)
9 Aiden Blizzard (Australia)
10 Adam Crosthwaite (Australia)
11 Yasir Hameed (Pakistan)
12 Kieran Powell (West Indies)
13 Dwayne Smith (West Indies)

SpiceJet keen to take Tatas on board

New Delhi, March 09: Low-cost carrier SpiceJet, which is mulling to expand horizons in the international airspace, has said that it wishes to have Tatas on its board to benefit from the conglomerate's expertise.

"Coming of the Tatas on our board is in our wishlist... It would be a pleasure to have board level representation by the Tatas," SpiceJet Executive Chairman Siddhanta Sharma said.

"Their (Tatas) hands may be full though, because of bagging of Corus and now a possible Jaguar-Land Rover deal,” Sharma added.

Reasoning why SpiceJet would love to have Tatas on its board, he said, "If they put on board someone in any company, it would be an expert in the area and they would bring in good corporate governance. Tatas’ culture is the best culture in the country. They are pioneers in integrity and other areas."

Towards the end of 2006, Tata Group company Ewart Investment had bought 7% stake in SpiceJet for about USD 17 million but the investment did not entitle them a board seat in the airline.

"When the Tatas invested in the airline, they made it clear that it was a purely financial investment and they said that they did not have sufficient resources to have a bigger role in the project," said Sharma.

Meanwhile, SpiceJet is hopeful of earning full-year profits from the coming fiscal. It plans to scale up its existing fleet of 18 aircraft to 30 in the next three years.

Asked if SpiceJet is currently talking to the Tatas to put someone on its board, Sharma said: "We are not pursuing with them. When we discussed in the past, they said they do not have sufficient resources."

Dispelling speculations of stake sale by any of the partners in the carrier, Sharma said SpiceJet has not been approached by anyone.

India, China worst performers in stock mkts
9 Mar, 2008, 0000 hrs IST...................
NEW DELHI: India and China may be the flavour of the world markets, but when it comes to performance of their stock exchange indices in 2008, they are doing the worst in Asia. While the Bombay Stock Exchange’s National Index (popularly known as BSE 100 Index) dipped by 16.08% during the first two months of 2008, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Shanghai A Index slipped as much as 17.36% during the same period.

A comparison of major market indices in Asia by Thomson Financial reveals that none of the indices posted positive returns during the said period. The best performing index during the period was Jakarta Se Composite, which declined by less than 1% during the said period.

According to analysts, the bad performance of these indices is largely due to the late correction in India and China. “Even though global markets witnessed a slowdown in December, emerging markets like India and China carried on till January. In case of India, the correction happened only after the first fortnight of January,” explains Dipen Shah, head — research of Kotak Securities.

According to Mr Shah, the correction may continue for the next two-three months, and a lot would depend upon the next quarterly results of India Inc. “There has been a definite indirect impact of the sub-prime lending crisis on the markets. With FIIs losing money due to the US recession, it has hit the liquidity in India. Reports that profits of ICICI Bank’s erosion of 9% profits due to sub-prime has also not come at a right time, which may send a wrong signal to the markets,” he feels.

Sanjay Aggarwal, national industry director, financial services, KPMG India, thinks that it would be unfair to pinpoint fingers on any particular reason for this fall. “Let me put it like this – there are speedbreakers on a road, and a bigger one has come across this time. Possibly with elections expected to be round the corner, US as well as India, this could be a result of the cautious approach of investors towards the stock markets,” he said.

Analysts expect the market to witness significant global currency corrections in near future. “These have a bearing on the investments in emerging markets and returns thereon. Global fund allocations for emerging markets would be clearer once currency implications become clearer during the next few months,” Mr Aggarwal said.

Sensex may hit 29,000 by June 2009
3,march, 2008, 1730 hrs IST.............
Like Mumbaikars caught unawares by the recent spell of cold wave, investors have been struggling to adapt to the recurring bouts of volatility on the bourses over the last one month. But the weathermen of Dalal Street are expecting sunny skies by the end of this calendar year. Five of the six participants at the ET Round Table see the bellwether BSE Sensex between 20-22,000 then.

The panelists included Narayan Ramachandran, MD & Country Head, Morgan Stanley; Pankaj Vaish, MD & Head equities and fixed income, Lehman Brothers; Ved Prakash Chaturvedi, MD & CEO, Tata Asset Management; Gaurang Shah, MD, Kotak Life; Rashesh Shah, CEO, Edelweiss Capital; and Motilal Oswal, Chairman, Motilal Oswal Securities. The session was moderated by Ramesh Damani, director, Ramesh S Damani Finance
Only one participant, Ved Prakash Chaturvedi felt that the market was likely to be around 18,000 levels on December 31, 2008. “But that does not mean that mutual fund investors will not make money,” he added.

Mr Ramachandran expects a modest performance by the Sensex in the current calendar, but expects the benchmark to touch 29,000 by June next year. Slowing corporate earnings is one factor that most market watchers feel could hold back the market. However, the ET panelists are not too worried about it.

According to Mr Ramachandran and Mr Vaish, interest rates are showing signs of slackening and that could provide a support to corporate earnings over the next couple of years. “These (recent outflow of FII money) are not big things...they are just minor....India has attracted a lot of money and most of it came because of the fact that India is an attractive destination for money,” said Mr Ramachandran. “The real thing that will decide is where fundamentals are going. I feel that they (fundamentals) are solid,” he added.

Mr Shah felt that issue was not about whether earnings will grow 18% or 12%, but about the rate at which the Indian GDP would grow. ”If you expect corporate earnings growth of 11-12%, it means we are looking at a GDP growth of 4.5 to 5 to 6%. But if you expect GDP growth rate to be around 8%, give or take 200 basis points, then a 17-18% corporate earnings growth is not difficult. And I haven’t seen anybody—Indian or global—question India’s 8% GDP growth rate,” Mr Shah said.

While foreign funds have pulling out over the last few months, domestic liquidity has been a strong pillar of support and this trend is expected to continue, feels Mr Chaturvedi. “The kind of money we have seen that has flown in from the domestic investors in the last one year is certainly heartening,” said Mr Chaturvedi. “My guess is that if you combine insurance and mutual funds and other (domestic) sources of inflows into the market, close to $2 billion of fresh money is coming into the market every month,” he added.

Mr Gaurang Shah sees more investors tapping the stock market through Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs), mainly because of the handsome returns these products have delivered in the last four years of the Bull Run.

He excepts inflows of roughly $5 billion through various insurance schemes during the current quarter, a significant portion of which will be accounted for by ULIPs.

“I think relative disadvantage of insurance as a instrument vis-à-vis other fixed interest products has come down, which is also because real interest rates have reduced across the world over the last 10 years. So I see money continuing to come in,” he said.




Einstein too has a place here

India could be one of the best places to invest in for many years to come, affirm panelists

What happens when you put the India heads of two large Wall Street banks, two entrepreneurs who’ve founded and run popular brokerages and two fund managers who manage crores of investor money in one room? You get sharp insights, wry humour and an affirmation that India could be one of the best places to invest in for many years to come.

All this and more happened one Thursday morning, when ET brought these top capital market experts together, with Ramesh S Damani, a well-known face of the stock broking community in India, as moderator. The current state of the financial markets, enunciations of Budget wish lists and suggestions on how the stock market could be made more efficient, flew across the table over cups of tea.

SBI joins Chinese bank to touch 10,000 branches
9 Mar, 2008, 1617 hrs IST, PTI

PUDUVAYAL: Public sector State Bank of India on Sunday became only the second bank in the world to have 10,000 branches when Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram inaugurated its latest branch here.

Speaking on the occasion, Chidambaram said China's ICBC Bank was the other bank to have 10,000 branches.

Opening 10,000 branches was a great feat. "It is not an easy milestone though the SBI was the bank of the government and Indian people even before other banks were nationalised," he said.

People all over the world, including the Chinese, would now know about this small village where the 10000th branch of the SBI had been opened, he said adding they would be amazed by the bank's growth.

The bank should be proud of the achievement he said and wished that the bank opened one lakh branches.

"Chairman of the 202-year old bank Omprakash Bhatt was indeed a more powerful man than me because he handled Rs nine lakh crore (business) whereas my budget is only for Rs eight lakh crore," he said.

The Minister said out of the over 100 crore people, seventy 75 per cent did not have any type of insurance. Similarly, 50 per cent of the 11 crore farmers did not have bank account. Banks should go to the people and enroll them as account holders. 'That is what economists say is financial inclusion,' he said.

Krishna Group plans to tie-up with 20 top brands in 2 months
9 Mar, 2008, 1527 hrs IST, PTI

MUMBAI: Textile major Krishna group plans to tie up with around 20 international and domestic brands in the next two months as part of the expansion plan of its multi- branded Grab store chain.

The group also plans to increase the total no of Garb stores to 50 by 2010 at an investment of around Rs 400 crore.

"We have already tied-up with 30 brands and in the next two months we are planning to tie-up with 20 more international and domestic brands, taking the number to 50," Promoter and Chairman of Krishna Knitwear Technologies Krishna Tayal who also heads the Grab store said.

"We are in the final stages of sealing deals with Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Colour Plus and Thomas Scot among others," he said.

The firm has already tied-up with brands like Nike, Puma, Adidas, Reebok, Lee, Giny & Jony, Levis, Spykar among others.

Presently, the company has three Grab stores, which it plans to scale up to 50 across-India by 2010. The company offer discounts in the range of 25-60 per cent.

"Usually each brand plans there stock three to six months before. We buy these stocks in huge amounts at a time and thus get it at a cheaper rate. We pass on the discounts we get from our brands to our consumers," he said.

By 2011, the company would have a pan-India footprint with a presence across 50 prominent locations, he said.

"By this year-end, we plan to have 10 Grab stores for which we will be investing Rs 100-crore," he said.

The company is also eyeing a turnover of Rs 500 crore by 2011 from its retail business, after its 50 stores get operational. Presently, its retail turnover stands at Rs 125 crore.

Nawaz Sharif to join PPP in coalition govt
9 Mar 2008, 1737 hrs IST................
BHURBAN: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday he would join the late Benazir Bhutto's party in a coalition government.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won the most seats in a February 18 general election but not enough to rule alone.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML(N), party came second and while it has vowed to support the PPP, Sharif had not previously confirmed his party would join the PPP in forming a government.

"It was also agreed that the PML(N) shall be part of the federal cabinet," Sharif told a news conference after talks with Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who took over as PPP leader after she was assassinated on Dec. 27.

PepsiCo more admired than Coke: Fortune
9 Mar 2008, 1337 hrs .......................
NEW YORK: Beverages major PepsiCo, led by India-born Indra Nooyi, has been placed higher than its arch rival Coca-Cola on a list of 20 most-admired global companies prepared by US business magazine Fortune.

The list, published in the latest issue of Fortune, ranks PepsiCo at 13th position as against Coca-Cola at 19th spot.

The list has been led by Apple Computer, the maker of digital music player iPod and Mac personal computers. PepsiCo shares the 13th position with IT services major IBM.

PepsiCo is the only company run by a person of India origin to have figured on the list of most admired firm.

Apple is followed by diversified industrial conglomerate General Electric at the second position and Japanese auto major Toyota at the third place.

Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of legendary investor Warren Buffett who was crowned the world's richest man last week by another business magazine Forbes, has been ranked at the fourth position on the list of 20 most admired global companies.

Others ranked higher than PepsiCo include consumer goods major Procter & Gamble (5th place), courier and logistics firm FedEx (6th), consumer goods maker Johnson & Johnson (7th), retail giant Target (8th), luxury car major BMW (9th), software giant Microsoft (10th), retail firm Costco Wholesale (11th) and another logistics firm UPS at the 12th place.

PepsiCo has, however, outscored companies like networking solutions major Cisco Systems (15th rank), aircraft maker Boeing (16th), world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores (17th), Japanese auto maker Honda Motor (18th) and industrial and farm equipments maker Caterpillar (20th).

'Foiled terror plot targeted Beijing Summer Olympics Games'
9 Mar 2008, 1639 hrs IST..........................

BEIJING: Chinese police captured and killed alleged Islamic terrorists plotting attacks targeting the Beijing Olympic Games, a senior Communist Party official said Sunday.

Wang Lequan, the top official in the far western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in the January 27 raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, showed the plotters' purpose was to "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."

"Their goal was very clear," Wang told reporters in Beijing. Wang offered no specific evidence, and earlier reports on the raid made no mention of Olympic targets.

The Global Times newspaper published by the Communist Party earlier reported that the group had planned bombings and other "violent terrorist incidents" on February 5, the last business day before the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The paper said police confiscated guns, homemade bombs, training materials and "extremist religious ideological materials" during the raid, in which two members of the gang were killed and 15 arrested. Authorities did not identify those killed and arrested or the targets of the alleged planned attacks.

Wang said the group had acted on orders from a Uighur separatist group based in Pakistan and Afghanistan called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The group has been labelled a terrorist organisation by both the United Nations and the United States. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang.

Chinese forces have for years been battling a low-intensity separatist movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people culturally and ethnically distinct from China's Han majority.

China says its main terror threat comes from ETIM, although the group is believed to have no more than a few dozen members.

Chinese forces reported raiding an ETIM training camp last year and killing 18 militants allegedly linked to Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

China has ratcheted up anti-terror preparations ahead of August's Olympics, with the nation's top police official last year labelling terrorism as the biggest threat facing the event.

Terrorism experts have said the threat of terrorism is low, given China's tight social controls, but warned that Beijing's counterterrorism capabilities are weak, especially in intelligence gathering and analysis

Bosch Q4 net profit jumps 91% QoQ
7 Mar, 2008, 1018 hrs IST.......................

MUMBAI: Bosch has posted a growth of 91.52 per cent in net profit to Rs 124.41 crore for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2007 against Rs 64.96 crore in the same quarter of earlier year. Total income increased 17.50 per cent to Rs 1,241.87 crore for the October-December period from Rs 1056.95 crore in same period of previous year.

The company’s net profit rose 11.17 per cent to Rs 609.21 crore for the year to December 2007 compared with Rs 548 crore last year. Total income improved by 16.06 per cent to Rs 4,576.54 crore from Rs 3943.38 crore earlier year. The company has declared a dividend at Rs 25 per share for the financial year. At 9:57 am, Bosch shares were down 0.64 per cent at Rs 3950 on BSE.